To-day a scorching heat that burns the lungs. We started in the
morning prepared to spend the night ashore, and explore the northern
end of the city. It was a pleasant walk through the soft grass of the
shady streets, but in those places unsheltered from the sun we were as
fish upon a frying-pan. Other dwellings we saw, even larger and more
imposing than the one we entered yesterday. We were tempted to explore
them, but Lev-el-Hedyd wisely dissuaded us, saying the day was waxing
hotter each hour and it could be done on our return.
In the northern part of the town are many religious temples, with
their tall towers like slender pyramids, tapering to a point. They are
curious things, and surprisingly well preserved. The interiors of
these temples are uninteresting. Nofuhl says the religious rites of
the Mehrikans were devoid of character. There were many religious
beliefs, all complicated and insignificant variations one from
another, each sect having its own temples and refusing to believe as
the others. This is amusing to a Persian, but mayhap was a serious
matter with them. One day in each week they assembled, the priests
reading long moral lectures written by themselves, with music by hired
singers. They then separated, taking no thought of temple or priest
for another seven days. Nofuhl says they were not a religious people.
That the temples were filled mostly with women.
In the afternoon we found it necessary to traverse a vast
pleasure-ground, now a wild forest, but with traces still visible of
broad promenades and winding drive-ways. (Olbaldeh thinks this must be
the Centralpahk sometimes alluded to in Mehrikan literature.) There
remains an avenue of bronze statues, most of them yet upright and in
good condition, but very comic. Lev-el-Hedyd and I still think them
caricatures, but Nofuhl is positive they were serious efforts, and
says the Mehrikans were easily pleased in matters of art.
We lost our way in this park, having nothing to guide us as in the
streets of the city. This was most happy, as otherwise we should have
missed a surprising discovery.
It occurred in this wise.
Being somewhat overcome by the heat we halted upon a little hill to
rest ourselves. While reclining beneath the trees I noticed unusual
carvings upon a huge block against which Lev-el-Hedyd was supporting
his back. They were unlike any we had seen, and yet they were not
unfamiliar. As I lay there gazing idly at them it flashed upon me they
were Egyptian. We at once fell to examining the block, and found to
our amazement an obelisk of Egyptian granite, covered with Egyptian
hieroglyphics of an antiquity exceeding by thousands of years the most
ancient monuments of the country!
Verily, we were puzzled!
"When did the Egyptians invade Mehrika?" quoth Bhoz-ja-khaz, with a
solemn look, as if trying to recall a date.
"No Egyptian ever heard of Mehrika," said Nofuhl. "This obelisk was
finished twenty centuries before the first Mehrikan was weaned. In all
probability it was brought here as a curiosity, just as we take to
Persia the bronze head of George-wash-yn-tun."
We spent much time over the monument, and I think Nofuhl was
disappointed that he could not bring it away with him. Also while in
this park we came to a high tower, standing by itself, and climbed to
the top, where we enjoyed a wide-spreading view.
The extent of the city is astounding.
Miles away in the river lay the Zlotuhb, a white speck on the water.
All about us in every direction as far as sight can reach were ruins,
and ruins, and ruins. Never was a more melancholy sight. The blue sky,
the bright sunshine, the sweet-scented air with the gay flowers and
singing birds only made it sadder. They seemed a mockery.
We have encamped for the night, and I can write no more. Countless
flying insects gather about us with a hateful buzz, and bite us beyond
endurance. They are a pest thrice accursed.
I tell Nofuhl his fine theory concerning the extinction of the Yahnkis
is a good tale for those who have never been here.
No man without a leather skin could survive a second night.